Spanners from Lidl

t-tony said:
A lot of the old school guys preffered Britool over Snap-On due to the higher cost of American tools, which was mainly brought about by the hi chrome polished finish the tools had. Where as Britool scanners etc. were a more dull finish. I have two sets of Britool combo spanners and they're excellent tools.

Tony.
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When I bought my Snap-On set as a lad, I couldn't afford the chrome version, so bought the 'industrial finish', i.e. chemical blacked rather than polished and plated. They were much less expensive than the chrome ones. The black has long since gone, replaced by a burnished steel appearance, much like the old Britool sockets.
 
Were the spammers on clearance @abh29 ?

These sets are usually £7.99 when they come up. And they seem to be having a £3 clearance at the moment.

I couldn’t see the spanners in 2 different stores. But I picked up a heavy duty ratchet strap for £3 (just paid £20 for an almost identical one last week from Screwfix) and a set of 4 smaller ones also for £3. They were both end of line clearances.
 
I had some large stuff for underground machinery many moons ago, building up and looking after these ....relegated to museum pieces: :( (driving them on occasion too)
5319731892_4a1bb029dc_b.webp



Then, when I went onto the coal face, I used to use flogging spanners to bolt the shearer sections together:
0000711384_resized_mwundergroundcoalmining0220181022.webp

the thread size on those bolts was M36, they took some tightening!



but then we moved onto hydraulic nuts afterwards:
BCHN-3.webp


they were superb,
Nothing shook loose after using them
 
gookah said:
I had some large stuff for underground machinery many moons ago, building up and looking after these ....relegated to museum pieces: :( (driving them on occasion too)
View attachment 116251


Then, when I went onto the coal face, I used to use flogging spanners to bolt the shearer sections together:
View attachment 116253
the thread size on those bolts was M36, they took some tightening!



but then we moved onto hydraulic nuts afterwards: for
View attachment 116257

they were superb,
Nothing shook loose after using them
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Dosco ripper and a very clean looking retreat face shearer? Used to read about this stuff in my dads trade press when I was a kid. He maintained these machines as well as the roadway equipment.
He never talked about it then. He’s been reminiscing about lots of this recently. Incredibly hard work with big heavy stuff in cramped, noisy and dangerous conditions. Hats off if you did this too. :thumbsup:
 
Redline said:
Dosco ripper and a very clean looking retreat face shearer? Used to read about this stuff in my dads trade press when I was a kid. He maintained these machines as well as the roadway equipment.
He never talked about it then. He’s been reminiscing about lots of this recently. Incredibly hard work with big heavy stuff in cramped, noisy and dangerous conditions. Hats off if you did this too. :thumbsup:
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Yep, both of those photos are museum pieces, the ones I worked on were a fair bit dirtier....!
I did 16 years underground til they shut them down. Actually 'at the coalface' which is now an expression that makes me cringe when I hear some of those marketing 'snowflakes' say it.

Dosco Mk 2a Roadheader for when we were doing the roadways, and an Anderson Strathclyde AS1000 shearer, plus all of the other stuff, armoured face conveyors, panzers, conveyor belts, haulage equipment, hydraulic pumps and chocks etc etc.
It was not a pleasant place by any means, but straight out of school I just saw it as work..
I remember having to go underneath the Dosco's on many occasions to change burst hydraulic hoses supplying the track motors,
Stripping off to my underpants, crawling underneath a jacked up 24 tonne machine, lying in slurry mixed with emulsifying hydraulic oil (Aquacent) then getting hosed down by a fire hose afterwards and carrying on the rest of the shift,
being 8 stone wet through had advantages sometimes though, I could get were some others would not fit..
(maybe not so advantageous after all)


40deg C heat, humidity so much that just sitting down would be covered in sweat and coal dust...

"but you try telling that to the young people of today" =))
 
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the Nefyn cat said:
Ah. Reminds me of something I saw in an "adult" catalogue once. :bag:
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Believe me. When that bit was going round (and up and down, and side to side) it would make your eyes water =))
 
mrscalex said:
Were the spammers on clearance @abh29 ?

These sets are usually £7.99 when they come up. And they seem to be having a £3 clearance at the moment.

I couldn’t see the spanners in 2 different stores. But I picked up a heavy duty ratchet strap for £3 (just paid £20 for an almost identical one last week from Screwfix) and a set of 4 smaller ones also for £3. They were both end of line clearances.
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Odd items individually priced , but lots off them on the shelf
 
I have quite a few tools from the 20V range. Impact driver, drill, hammer drill, circular saw, jigsaw, angle grinder and they have been brilliant. There's a 20V cordless impact wrench coming in on the 26th which I think I'm going to get, £59.99. I have the corded one which is good but the cordless will be so much easier.

Even some of the tools in Aldi are great, I picked this up the other day.

IMG_7193.webp


There was 2 left and they were reduced even further to £4.99. You can vary the fan speed plus the temperature from 50 deg to 660, great for testing the smoke alarms work in the house when you crank the heat up :facepalm:
 
I got a set of the swivel head version today from Aldi Lichfield. They had them about 4 years ago when someone I know bought a set - still going strong today apparently with no issues to the ratchet. Proper set screws in the pivot instead of roll pins.
IMG_20190917_183614529.webp

Stamped Aldi Stores on the spanners.
 
No reason these ratchet spanner’s from Aldi shouldn’t last a decent amount of time, after all if you crack a nut first with decent spanner then use your ratchet end it will only get the work it was designed for. Trouble is if used for tightening right up or cracking undone a nut/bolt it will either brake it or shorten its life. I’ve got one of the first old sets of ratchet spanner’s and they’re still going strong two halves riveted together, cheap and nasty looking but still useable but not pivoting. Must be at least 35+yrs old. Have bought another set that pivot from Halfords few yrs ago, they don’t get the use they should as they’re always put away in the tool box furthest away from the job at hand.:confused:.
 
These I bought are date stamped 8/2019 on the spanner side. A nice fine ratchet too. Agree given some grievous the ratchets may start skidding but this chap who bought some 4 years ago has had no issues. Corby Aldi had loads in today, no £3 spanners at Corby Lidl though.
 
Rha said:
No reason these ratchet spanner’s from Aldi shouldn’t last a decent amount of time, after all if you crack a nut first with decent spanner then use your ratchet end it will only get the work it was designed for. Trouble is if used for tightening right up or cracking undone a nut/bolt it will either brake it or shorten its life. I’ve got one of the first old sets of ratchet spanner’s and they’re still going strong two halves riveted together, cheap and nasty looking but still useable but not pivoting. Must be at least 35+yrs old. Have bought another set that pivot from Halfords few yrs ago, they don’t get the use they should as they’re always put away in the tool box furthest away from the job at hand.:confused:.
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Roy, have those got little arrows on ... =))
 
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